Difficult Concepts in Science and Engineering: Identifying, Assessing, and Helping Students Learn Them

1. Difficult Concepts in Science and Engineering: Identifying, Assessing, and Helping Students Learn Them Ruth Streveler (CSM), Mary Nelson (CU-Boulder), Barbara Olds (CSM), Ron Miller (CSM)

2. Workshop Overview • What science and engineering concepts seem to be most difficult for students to learn? • Why some concepts are so difficult to learn • Some ways to measure students’ misunderstanding of these concepts. • Some ideas for designing instruction to make these concepts easier to learn

3. What science and engineering concepts are most difficult? • Participant introductions • Participants team with those in related fields • Exercise • What concepts do the students you are most difficult to learn? • Individually write down answers (2 minutes) • Share with your team (6 minutes) • Report back to the whole group

4. Why are these concepts difficult?

5. From the Video... “Sometimes the simplest problems in science defy intuition and the most basic technology is surprisingly difficult to grasp. Is it because we weren’t taught? Or is it because of something deeper? Something about the way we think?”

6. Video Exercise • Why are some concepts in science and engineering so difficult to learn? Is it because students weren’t taught? Or is it something about the way students think? • Individually write down ideas (2 mins) • Share with your group (6 mins)

7. What is a Misconception? • In terms of a constructivist view of learning and knowledge, students create mental models describing their view of the world • Models which inaccurately describe phenomena are termed misconceptions or alternate conceptions

8. Misconceptions and Prior Knowledge • Students come to your classes with at least partially developed mental models which we may term prior knowledge • Prior knowledge is often formed using everyday experience and may involve significant, robust misconceptions

9. How can misconceptions be identified? • Research methods • interviews • “think aloud” problem-solving • verbal protocol analysis • Concept inventories • multiple choice instruments with conceptual questions (answer list includes common misconceptions as distractors)

10. A Concept Inventory Exercise • Individually, complete the 4 question concept inventory (2 minutes) • Your team compare answers; develop a consensus answer for each question (5 minutes) • Be prepared to report to the full group

11. Concept Inventories Promote Learning • Understanding misconceptions is an essential component of pedagogy • Ignoring micro-level misconceptions and focusing only at the macro-level prevents deep understanding • Micro-level understanding promotes learning transfer Shulman, 1986

12. Expert Blind Spot (EBS) • EBS is the “inability to perceive the difficulties that novices will experience as they approach a new domain of knowledge that arises as a consequence of well-developed subject matter knowledge.” Nathan, Koedinger and Alibali, 2001 • Concept inventories are designed to identify those micro-level difficulties that teachers sometimes overlook because of EBS.

13. Importance of Identifying Misconceptions • Students will cling to misconceptions unless these fallacies are addressed • If teachers merely “tell” students the correct answer without addressing the misconception, students will cling to their initial (mis)understanding

14. Importance of Identifying Misconceptions • Concept inventories can be effectively used to inform teaching strategies • Concept inventories help teachers to focus on the benefits of formative assessment rather than just summative

15. Some Guidelines for Repairing Misconceptions • Think about the conceptual knowledge you want students to acquire • Use methods to uncover student pre- or misconceptions of these concepts • Allow students to “experiment” with the concepts • Help students construct a new conceptual framework for understanding these concepts • Find ways to gather feedback about students’ understanding

16. Helping students construct a new conceptual framework • Example from Chemistry • Mole seen as “mass” not “amount of molecules” • Other examples

17. Misconception Activity • List as many misconceptions in your discipline as you can think of (3 min.) • Share your list with your team and select one important misconception (5 min.) • Discuss how you might identify the misconception and how you might design a course unit to repair it (10 min.)

18. Our Current Projects • Developing an Outcomes Assessment Instrument for Identifying Engineering Student Misconceptions in Thermal and Transport Sciences (NSF DUE-0127806) • Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (NSF ESI-0227558)

19. Project Goal “To develop an easy-to-use outcomes assessment tool (concept inventory) that will allow engineering faculty at the course and program levels to identify fundamental student misconceptions in thermal and transport science courses.”

20. Project Objectives • Develop lists of significant student misconceptions in: • Fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics • Solid mechanics • Electrical engineering • Create multiple-choice instruments patterned after the Force Concept Inventory • Field test the instruments to demonstrate validity and reliability

21. Our Progress to Date • Delphi survey • Methodology • Generative round • Three iterations to rate items • Preliminary results • See handout

22. For more information • Check the CSM Center for Engineering Education website: http://www. mines.edu/research/cee/ Check CAEE web site http://www.engr.washington.edu/caee/